Triple X drive Porsche challenge south

New Zealand’s leading Porsche GT3 Cup team Triple X Motorsport, begin back-to-back weekends of race action, starting with this weekend’s third championship round held near Timaru (9-11 January 2009).

Starting the 2009 year with a 1200km journey from Auckland to Timaru, the six car Porsche team front for the resumption in the six round season, with the fourth round the following weekend held near Invercargill.

Currently headed by points leader and defending title champion Craig Baird, his Barrons RV Taupo ZM - Porsche 997 has been workshop freshened for the long-distance journey. Baird says the coming two consecutive race weekends are a favourite part of his New Zealand race campaign: “Timaru is my favourite track in the country and having Invercargill the week after means I can spend the whole time with my family,” said the 38-year old Queensland based Kiwi. “You have nearly a week in Queenstown between weekends and it’s only a few hours’ drive down the road and you’re racing again, where normally you’ve got a long journey between events.”

Included in the line-up, Melbourne’s David Reynolds (Placemakers – Karcher – Porsche 997) holds second in the season standings – 91 points behind Baird. Auckland’s Daniel Gaunt (Beef and Lamp – Radio Sport – Trinity Media Group – Porsche 997) is fourth, seeking to reclaim his third spot podium position to complete the table topping team trifecta.

Gaunt also holds the qualifying lap record at the 2.4km circuit, set during the previous season when he secured his first pole position in a Porsche at the Timaru venue.

“I enjoy Timaru, it was the first ever place I raced a car as well so that’s another reason I enjoy driving around it. It has some dangerous areas and is tough to string a whole perfect lap together. If I can match last year’s qualifying result I’ll be pretty happy,” said the 23-year old.

Adding to the championship pressure, the team also includes Sydney’s Rodney Forbes (Hampsta - MPD Dairy Products – Porsche 997) who is in fifth position, team principal Shane McKillen (VnC Cocktails – Porsche 997) and series rookie Courtney Letica (Altherm - Porsche 997) rounding out the top-12 championship placings.

In preparation for the two away events in the deep south, two of the team’s six cars have brand new body shells following significant chassis damage suffered at the Christchurch weekend held near the end of 2008. Rodney Forbes and Courtney Letica’s cars both suffered heavy damage that required new Porsche 997 body shells to be air freighted directly from Porsche Motorsport in Weissach – Germany. That left the team with the frantic task of piecing together the cars in readiness for the journey south in the early New Year.

“It’s been a massive task for the boys,” said technical director Todd Bickerton. “We had to sacrifice our Christmas / New Year holidays when we would normally be engaged in season socialising. The guys have put in some long hours to ready all six cars before the journey south, although we got ahead enough to have a couple of days off for New Year’s.”

Arriving in Timaru late Wednesday, the team will establish their track-side area on Thursday in preparation for two timed practise and test sessions on Friday. Qualifying for the three-race weekend is held mid-Saturday morning with the first 12-lap race in the afternoon.

There is a second 12-lap race Sunday morning with a 16-lap race in the afternoon where the top-six leaders are reversed in start order.

Ends.

2008/09 Porsche GT3 Cup Championship points (after round two of six) – top four.

1. Craig Baird (Queensland) – Triple X Motorsport 511
2. David Reynolds (Melbourne) – Triple X Motorsport 414
3. Jono Lester (Auckland) – 384
4. Daniel Gaunt (Auckland) – Triple X Motorsport 368